Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior: Hands-On

Share.

It's been around for years, but THQ and Kuju are out to produce the definitive Warhammer videogame.

By Jeremy Dunham

Despite its previous incarnations on the PC and PlayStation, the Warhammer 40,000 series has never achieved the same reputation in the videogame world as it has in the board game community. The most respected pen and paper fantasy RPG this side of Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer has been credited with as much influence and popularity as Gary Gygax's legendary franchise (and depending on who you talk to has even more so). Hoping to capitalize on the series' far-reaching potential, THQ and Kuju Entertainment have teamed up to create the authoritative standard for which all future Warhammer games are to be judged: Enter Fire Warrior.

Strangely enough the designers have opted to stray away from Warhammer's traditional RPG roots and have instead focused on the action-hungry race of Tau warriors. The lead character himself is known as Case and should be a familiar site for miniature collectors and rulebook aficionados' alike -- Green skin, a nearly non-existent nose, and reptilian features make the character's appearance rather distinctive. Played out through the popular first-person perspective that all the kids are raving about, Fire Warrior follows Case as he descends further and further into an underground labyrinth that's filled with everything from robots and monsters to decidedly wicked-looking demon things. Admittedly the premise sounds a bit cookie-cutter, but that's not the reason that PlayStation 2 owners are going to buy it.

The real reason could be it's incredible deathmatch options (the likes of which we had the chance to sample rather recently). Working in a similar fashion to most of today's popular FPS games on PC, Fire Warrior is as high-intensity as you can get. Scattered gunfire, multiple attack points, and height-based advantages are scattered about in just about every level regardless of whether you're playing in the hot seat or online through the network adapter. And while we're on the subject of levels, the stage design is really quite good --with several areas in each section that allow for Somalian Conflict-type close -quarters gun battles and heated frag-fests. Ducking behind obstacles and jumping for cover have actually been made useful for once and in a clever bit of graphical programming, Kuju has done a terrific job of keeping the framerate smooth and the environmental textures in the same league as other PS2 FPS bad boys.

Unfortunately our selection of weapons was rather small, and in both the regular mode and deathmatch arena, the artificial intelligence of enemy robots was nearly non-existent. Luckily THQ and Kuju have promised to fix both of these aspects by Fire Warrior's ship date in September and will boast over 15 different types of weaponry (including laser rifles, missile launchers, and the like) and what is rumored to be some of the most vicious and ruthless A.I. yet seen.

Overall our hands-on time with Warhammer was pretty limited, with few chances to give the story-based aspects of the game a proper run-through. With plenty of multiplayer options and single missions in the works, however, the short but entertaining ride we had was enough to leave us with high hopes and an interested eye. Stay tuned to IGN for more on Fire Warrior and it's many gameplay aspects, weapons, and characters later on this summer.